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AJ Styles Responds To Nick Aldis’ WWE SmackDown Invitation

By John Canton • Published Jan 22, 2026 19:01 EST
AJ Styles

AJ Styles has responded to Nick Aldis’s invitation to the blue brand that Styles once ruled. 

A huge match will take place at the Royal Rumble on January 31st in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

During a promo exchange on the January 19th edition of WWE Monday Night Raw, AJ Styles confronted Gunther and told the Austrian that he wanted a match at the Royal Rumble. That’s because Gunther tapped out in his match with Styles a week earlier, but the referee never saw the tap, and Gunther came back to win with a Powerbomb.

Gunther initially said no to Styles’ Royal Rumble match request because Gunther plans to be in the Men’s Royal Rumble match. However, Gunther went on to think about it some more and said he would face Styles at the Rumble just as long as AJ puts his career on the line at the Royal Rumble.

Later in the night, Styles accepted Gunther’s challenge. Since Gunther beat Bill Goldberg and John Cena in their final matches in 2025, the idea is that the “Career Killer” Gunther wants to do that to Styles in what could be his last WWE match as well.

AJ Styles Is Heading To SmackDown

There was a time in AJ Styles’ career in the late 2010s when he spoke about how SmackDown was the house that Styles built and how Styles was the “face that runs the place.”

It turns out you can go “home” again because SmackDown’s General Manager, Nick Aldis, posted a video on social media inviting Styles to come to SmackDown in Montreal this Friday, January 24th. Aldis and Styles go back a long way, to when they were big names in TNA, so there’s a friendship there.

In response to the video, Styles made it clear that he was accepting Aldis’s offer to go to SmackDown on Friday.

I appreciate that. The forecast for G-ville is bad weather. Why not go to a place where snow and ice are not that big of a deal? See you soon.

What Styles was referring to with “G-Ville” is Gainesville, Georgia, where he lives, and there’s a massive winter storm coming for much of the US this coming weekend, so Styles seems okay with getting away from home, even though Montreal is a much colder place, but as Styles said, they are used to it.

Here’s what WWE is advertising for SmackDown in Montreal on January 23rd.

  • AJ Styles Appearance
  • #1 Contenders Match for WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Nia Jax & Lash Legend vs. Kiana James & Giulia vs. Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss
  • WWE Tag Team Championships: Wyatt Sicks (c) vs. MFT
  • Trick Williams vs. Damian Priest
  • Nathan Frazer vs. Johnny Gargano

The following night, January 24th in Montreal, is Saturday Night’s Main Event, and there are only three matches official on a show that usually has four matches, so perhaps Styles could be put into a match on that show.